Sunday, May 10, 2009

Grandpa is over the hill and Grandma doesn't care

I am a product of the 60's. I experienced the sexual revolution live and in person. What people used to snicker and whisper about prior to then, sitcoms, private conversations began to obsess about right out in the open. Still people would get married and have their families in due time and get on with living the American dream.

I have recently experienced two weddings where the bride and bridegroom were preceded down the aisle by thier little 2-3 year old offspring. I feel like something left over from the Mesozoic period. I had a maternal great aunt who disappeared back in the 1890's and no one ever heard from again. The scuttlebutt was that she got herself in trouble. Nowadays there is absolutely zero stigma attached to such a circumstance. People living together before the nuptials is common practice. Pregnancy prior to marriage is commonplace and accepted.

I remember cars back in the 60's had huge tailfins on them. The psychologists got a lot of mileage by saying that they were in fact phallic symbols reflecting the new found freedom of sexual expression. I always scratched my head and wondered how in the world society could all of a sudden be that obsessed with sex.

Now, here I am in this new millenium. There is no longer a need for phallic symbols. I think I counted 492 E.D. commercials in one baseball game I watched in the last week. The world is now obsessed with the subject of erection. There is no phallic subtlety to this obsession. The manufacturers of Viagra, Cialis and Levitra spend 100's of millions of dollars advertising for their products. I used to live in the world of pharmaceuticals. I know that they would not be making those expenditures if the world did not thunder to their door and buy the product. I have to admit that I was more comfortable when people whispered about such subjects. Call me an old fogey.

When I was a young man people would say that grandpa was over the hill. It meant that he could no longer cut the mustard. Whatever the case, be it hypertension, diabetes, hypercholesteremia, low testosterone, just wasn't interested anymore, etc. This was an accepted fact of life and you know what? Life went on. You know what else? Grandma nor grandpa went blind nor did she care a whole lot that grandpa preferred playing 18 holes of golf instead of a game of slap and tickle.

The discovery of sildenafil ( generic for Viagra) was what is called a serendipitous discovery. It was being studied as an antihypertensive. Some of the human trials produced a lot of men with unmistakeable smiles on their faces. Wallah ! An application to the FDA gave us the first product for ED. Cost? $10 per tablet. It was known as Vitamin V, the little blue pill and a break through. Bob Dole made his smirky little commericals and it made Pfizer pharmaceuticals more rich and powerful. State medicaids, who at the time, were getting stingy about giving people the newer BP meds, antiarrythmia drugs, asthma drugs added this drug to their formularies. They allowed the medicaid recpients as many as 10-12 tablets per month at taxpayer expense of various states.

My point? Simply this: We live in a surreal world. Many people are mindless automatons. We are susceptible to what we see on CNN, FOX, CNBC and so on. This recession/depression we are in is real, primarily because we think it is so. We read about it in the WSJ, USA Today. We saw a report on CBS. So we react accordingly.

I am telling you right now. For those of you paying rent, I don't care what the economist says on the Oprah show, it has never been a better time to purchase a home. Don't believe it when they tell you there is no money for mortgages. There is plenty of money at UNDER 6%. The inventory of homes is HUGE. You can take your pick. There is $8,000 in a bonafide tax credit available to you. The Florida legislature just set aside $30 million to allow you to get an advance on that tax credit to use for your down payment. Call me up and let's get going. Nothing makes life more fulfilling than owning your own home. It is still the American Dream. I can help you get it fulfilled.

1 comment:

Viagra and Levitra are the two FDA (Food and Drugs Administration) approved anti-impotence drugs that are indeed effective in helping men. However, the Cialis Speak content informs that Cialis, the Eli Lilly`s medicine to treat erectile dysfunction, is somewhat better than Viagra as it stays in the body for a period of around 36 hours.

About Me

Not a lot to tell. Born in West Virginia. Moved at 14 yoa. Education at University of Alabama and Huntingdon College. 30 year career with DuPont. Happily married to Nancy for 44 years. Avid golfer playing to a a 18 handicap. Son, Drew, works for the state of Florida, married to Jaren, who is employed as a nutritionist for the Department of Agriculture . She and Drew gave us a cute little grand daughter, Bellamy. One daughter, Beth, married to Chris, an Obstetrician, newest practitioner with North Florida Women's Care, Tallahassee. 3 little girls, Caroline, Kate and Georgia. Other daughter, Emily, marrried to Galen, a software consultant, college professor. Two daughters, Amelia and Samantha and a son, Benjamin.